sidde: "I always had the dream of working with skullz again"

FURIA made it through the last chance gauntlet with new coach sidde at the helm.

After a dreary first half of 2024, FURIA elected to make changes as the player break approached, removing long-time member Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan and briefly making use of FURIA Academy player Kayke "⁠kye⁠" Bertolucci before acquiring Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros from Liquid.

Changes didn't only affect FURIA's starting five, as coach Nicholas "⁠guerri⁠" Nogueira elected to move into a new position within the Brazilian organization, taking on the role of Head of Esports. Taking up his mantle in the head coach position was Sid "⁠sidde⁠" Macedo, previously the team's assistant coach.

Read more

Official: FURIA sign skullz

The new-look FURIA have enjoyed a solid debut at Esports World Cup 2024, recovering from an opening BO3 loss to Natus Vincere with three successive BO1 victories over FlyQuest, Sashi, and The MongolZ, earning them a place in the quarter-finals of the event.

Shortly after his team secured their playoff spot in Riyadh, sidde spoke with HLTV regarding his transition into the role of FURIA's head coach, his experience working with guerri and Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo, his role in bringing skullz into the team, and his thoughts on the team's impending matchup versus MOUZ.

---

You have made your way through the last-chance stage, a cutthroat bracket. Does it feel like a relief to make your way to the quarter-finals?

Yeah, definitely does. We knew that if we lost the first match we would have a really hard way to make it into the playoffs, but we always believed that we could make it and I'm really happy that we did it.

Today's matches were on the stage. What are your impressions of the arena? I believe this is the first event of this scale in your new role.

Yeah, that's my first event being on the stage. Everything feels so good. I feel like the acoustics are really good, people came to watch and did a really good job of cheering for us which made me pretty happy. It was nice seeing them cheer for us. The arena seems really cool. I mean, we want to see it when it's full, but people came here today and they cheered for us and that made me happy. I feel like everything went really smooth with the arena, yeah.

You were the assistant coach of FURIA for some time. Can you tell us how you joined the team, and what you have been doing in your previous role?

Before I joined, I was working with some regional teams from Brazil. FURIA was my first time working with a team that competed in international tournaments. I was working in Brazil, guerri found me working there. He saw what I did and he told me I did a good job, and he wanted me to be part of the FURIA project because they had just gotten rid of the former assistant coach.

He found me, and he told me it would be good to have me because he saw some potential in me. Since I joined, I have been helping the team with preparations and basic stuff for day-to-day things, like helping with prac notes and helping the team get better in some situations, basically the same job any other assistant coach does. I have been working really close with guerri which helped me make the transition into the new position.

When you got the offer to become the main coach, was it something you expected to eventually come, like a promotion that was meant to happen?

Yeah, this is actually something that was planned by guerri. Our first talk, he mentioned that one day this could happen because he saw that someday he would be leaving the position to try some more important stuff inside the organization in a different position. He told me, there's a possibility one day this happens.

When I got the news, it was really cool. He told me that it was closer than ever to happening, so he told me to prepare, and we started a transition process. During that transition, I started talking more and having more space to help the team. We did it in a good way, that I feel really comfortable in this position.

How does it work with guerri being the Head of Esports in FURIA? How is he involved with your team and with your work?

He talks to us all the time, he wants to see how the team is doing. I think he is doing the same work with every lineup inside FURIA. He wants to have access to stats, and how we do on the day-to-day, the routine, the scrims, how the bootcamps are going, and things like that.

He's always in touch with us, he wants some updates to see if the team is working in a way he thinks is right, so he still has a lot of impact on the entire organization, not just the CS team. He's trying to spread the culture he created inside the CS team to the entire organization.

Do you feel like you're a successor of guerri, continuing his work and his philosophy, or do you feel like you have something new to introduce?

I mean, I have a lot of new ideas to bring to the team. Of course, I learned a lot with him, and it was really important for me to learn with him. I think that made me a more complete coach, I would say.

A lot of the things he did, I still do, but I'm definitely bringing my own touch to the team, and the way I see things is mainly how we are going to operate now. But I have a big influence from him, because I learned a lot, and it was a big pleasure to be able to work with a guy who is as successful as him.

You joining the team coincided with the introduction of skullz. How do you feel about it? Is it more exciting to be part of the project at this moment, or does it bring new challenges?

I love the fact that he is here with me, because we've worked together. Three years ago I had an opportunity to work with him in Brazil, and we became big friends. He's my friend for life, and I've always had the dream of working with him again, and I'm really happy this happened in FURIA now.

I was the one who gave the organization the idea of bringing him in because I already knew him and how much he could add to the team and how much of the impact he could add that we were lacking. I feel like he was the right addition, and I'm really happy to have him with me.

FalleN is obviously the veteran, one of the biggest names in Brazilian Counter-Strike history ever. There have been talks regarding the authority structure of the team; do you feel comfortable in terms of having your voice heard?

I feel one hundred percent comfortable because I've been working with FalleN for the past twelve months, so I know how he thinks and I know how he operates. It's not about him having all the power, but he has a lot of influence in the team, and in the ideas, he's a true leader. He will always have a big voice. But he's an easygoing guy, it's easy to talk to him and reflect on ideas with him, and he's always open to new ideas. That's one of the things that makes him a big leader.

He's always listening, and it's really easy to work with him, so I feel one hundred percent comfortable. I feel like I can bring all my ideas to the team and to him and we will always get to a middle ground, maybe on my idea sometimes he'll pass, maybe his, but we are always in a good position to talk and to get to the final conclusion of what we should be doing.

Tomorrow you play MOUZ; what do you think of your chances of winning that game?

I mean, being completely honest here, they are the clear favorites here, but we have a lot of chances of winning against them because we have been on a really good streak. I feel like this fires up our team big time, we always tend to perform well when we are on a win streak.

I feel like they are the favorites, but of course, we have big chances, we are going to do good preparation against them. Last time we faced them in an arena, it was a similar environment, and we managed to win in Finland last year. I like our chances against them, and I feel like it will be a good match.